WA Centre of Research Excellence

Lymphoma Australia is proud to support the Lymphoma Centre of Research Excellence in Perth

On Tuesday April 24th Snowdome held a gala dinner at the Wildflower restaurant, COMO The Treasury to raise funds for a Western Australian Lymphoma Centre of Research Excellence. The Centre aims to enable lymphoma patients’ access to clinical trials in their home state. Clinical trials are a gateway to next-generation treatments that are often the last hope for patients who have failed conventional therapies.

The 87 distinguished guests had the opportunity to hear from Snowdome Director and co-founder Professor Miles Prince on the rationale behind why Snowdome exists and the importance of Snowdome in funding cutting edge research that would otherwise take years to come to fruition. Dr Chan Cheah who is leading the initiative passionately spoke about why the Lymphoma Research Centre of Excellence is so important to him. Dr Cheah noted that during his training at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Melbourne) and MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, Texas) he saw how world-class centres of cancer research operated and aspires to offering this service to patients with blood cancer in WA.

A patient who has already benefited from the Centre of Research Excellence spoke about the difference being in a clinical trial has made to her life, without having to travel interstate. She noted how fortunate Perth lymphoma patients are to now have access to next-generation treatments.

Guests on the night were clearly impressed with the benefit to WA and the pressing need for Lymphoma patients. The guests very generously raised in excess of $285,000 to ensure the Centre of Research Excellence will be well resourced to run cutting-edge clinical trials.

It would be remiss not to mention Rachael Doherty, a brave and courageous young girl from Perth who’s fight with lymphoma had her travel to Melbourne on a regular basis over 6 years for expert care at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. It would give Rachael the greatest pleasure to know that there is now a dedicated cancer facility in Perth so patients and their families might be spared a lot of what she and her family had to endure.

Snowdome is incredibly grateful for the generosity of Adrian and Michela Fini, as well as the support of our pro-bono major sponsors COMO The Treasury and Wildflower. We would also like to thank our collaborative partners Linear, Lymphoma Australia, The Rachael Doherty Foundation, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and The University of Western Australia for their support.

For more detail please visit: www.snowdome.org.au/latest-news/

 

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Useful Definitions

  • Refractory: This means the lymphoma does not get better with treatment. The treatment didn’t work as hoped.
  • Relapsed: This means the lymphoma came back after being gone for a while after treatment.
  • 2nd line treatment: This is the second treatment you get if the first one didn’t work (refractory) or if the lymphoma comes back (relapse).
  • 3rd line treatment: This is the third treatment you get if the second one didn’t work or the lymphoma comes back again.
  • Approved: Available in Australia and listed by the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA).
  • Funded: Costs are covered for Australian citizens. This means if you have a Medicare card, you shouldn’t have to pay for the treatment.[WO7]

You need healthy T-cells to make CAR T-cells. For this reason, CAR T-cell therapy cannot be used if you have a T-cell lymphoma – yet.

For more information on CAR T-cells and T-cell lymphoma click here. 

Special Note: Although your T-cells are removed from your blood for CAR T-cell therapy, most of our T-cells live outside of our blood – in our lymph nodes, thymus, spleen and other organs.